Boulder

So this a little different that my norm...rather than share what I'm doing to work out, I'll share my experience in Boulder over the past weekend.

I flew out from DC to Denver airport after a particularly stressful week at work. I got in to the airport around 7:30 and we headed straight to Pearl Street in Boulder. I had a ridiculous potato burrito at Illegal Pete's (totally different from Bombers, but absolutely fantastic on a totally different level). The night led to various shenanigans across Pearl Street and it was all sorts of fantastic. We didn't end up getting home till 3:30. Sleep was brief and interrupted, and we ended up going fro breakfast at this fantastic place at 8:30...I has a guacamole/tomato/cheddar omelet. I know it sounds weird, but it was excellent! Course I spent most of the day sick to my stomach, but ultimately, it was worth it.

I'd really wanted to climb out here but had serious doubts about the commitment my friends might put into it - fortunately, one of the guys (who I wasn't particularly close with at RPI, but I had hung out with briefly) has been climbing like a beast and suggest a trip out to Boulder Canyon. Absolutely gorgeous. We climbed Avalon and Watermark. All of the climbs were fantastic. Dry, fun, challenging and pretty different from my East Coast experiences. I actually did my first lead belay, and lead my first sport route at 5.7 Leading the sport route was really interesting. The route was easy and something I knew I could go, but it made my climb sooo much more deliberate and calculated. Certain things that I hadn't thought of were complicated - for example, if I were to ever climb something harder than a 5.7 I'd have to practice clipping in the rope one handed. I had great feet all over the place so clipping in two handed was totally doable, but going one handed was a little more challenging.

I also committed a fairly large fuck up: at the top, the route shared anchor bolts with the route to the left of it. I yelled down to my belayer whether I should be using a different set of quick draws, but apparently my question was not understood and I ended up clipping my rope through the same set that the other rope was on. It certainly was not clear to me, and after hearing the explanation (nylon rubbing nylon = bad) I totally understand my fuck up and apologized profusely. Still, I felt pretty stupid and it took a little away from the sense of accomplishment I felt at climbing my first sport route.

The other climbs were pretty awesome and I felt that I'd had a pretty solid day of Boulder climbing. Lead belaying was pretty simple and straight forward and I'm glad to have done it. The weather was less than fantastic: it doesn't rain in Colorado, but it did this weekend. The temperature dropped a ton while we were out in the canyon and I was thrilled that the guy who took me climbing had this crazy huge down jacket. Being a bit dehydrated and not having tons of snacks with me meant that I was NOT feeling in top shape.

Saturday evening involved delicious sushi, quiet hanging out and lots of sleeping to make up for the night before. Sunday involved serious abuse and pain from my most loving friend, and eventually I came out the hotel in Denver where I'll be for the next 4 days. I went to dinner with my co-worker and her little sister (who, by the way, is living a parallel life with me, go figure). Magianno's was fantastic - fried zucchini is still as good as it ever was and I got a little nostalgic for my Atlanta vacations. Back in my room, I did some work for the meeting this week.

Boulder and Denver are pretty wonderful...I have to say that Colorado appeals to me. If I lived here, I'd probably be skiing like an animal, climbing after work and I could potentially see riding (horse) come back into my life. There are horse barns everywhere. I love DC so much and I'm no where near ready to leave, nor do I see that happening for a few years, but I can see Boulder in my future. I just have to figure out where Seattle, San Francisco, Buenos Aires, Rome and Australia (at large) factor in to the times and order that I want to live in these places.

Ahi quedamos.